Monday, August 17, 2009

You've Come A Long Way, Baby!

Does anyone out there remember that slogan for cigarettes from back in the day?? That just came to my mind this morning when I woke up. Today is our 24th wedding anniversary! It's so hard to believe that 24 years ago today we started this journey together. We were so young and so in love. And we had no idea what life had in store for us. I wrote about our story last year on our anniversary...how we dated all through high school, etc. You can go here and read it. God has been so good. He's given us four beautiful children and so many other blessings along the way.

Now we are about to take our last two babies to college this week and start a new chapter in our marriage. I know we are going to miss them, but the best thing is we still have lots of great times to look forward to together. Steve and I still really enjoy each other and we have a lot of fun together. After we get adjusted to the change, it will almost be like we are starting all over and we get to do all the things couples do when they don't have kids yet. We were only married for two years before Ashley was born, so we never really had much time for just the two of us.

Since we are in the middle of planning Ashley's wedding, I have been thinking about how different weddings are today from when we got married back in 1985. Weddings back then (at least around here) just weren't the huge productions that they are today. Here are just a few differences and similarities between the wedding I had and the wedding Ashley is going to have:

My dad was the pastor of our church, so he walked me down the aisle, then performed the wedding ceremony. My dad, Ashley's grandfather, will also perform her wedding ceremony.

I had over 500 people at my wedding and a full choir sang. Ashley will have between 250-300 people at her wedding and she thinks that is stretching it.

Steve looks relieved that the whole thing is over in this picture. He was pretty nervous standing before so many people. And my dad tied the knot reeeeaaallllly tight! haha

We had our reception in the fellowship hall of a church. Ashley will have her reception at a country club.

Our cake was made by a friend of ours who made cakes. She gave it to us as her wedding gift to us. It was just a basic white cake, but I thought it was so good because I loved her icing. Ashley's cake will have many layers and they will all taste different!

There was no dancing at our reception...just more of a meet and greet. Ashley will have a DJ and a dance floor.

I did my own hair, make-up, and nails before the wedding. I just used a curling iron and some of my own fingernail polish. Ashley and all her bridesmaids will make a day out of getting their hair and make up done.

We had a few dips and finger sandwiches and little quiches and maybe some chicken drumettes along with punch and nuts at our reception. Our church dietician made everything. Ashley will have her reception catered.

My dress cost about $300.00. Ashley's costs....way more than that!!

My bridesmaids dresses were rainbow colors, made out of taffeta, had puffy sleeves, were tea length and the girls wore white hose and dyed to match shoes. Yep...it screamed 80's!!! Ashley's dresses are burgandy and very classic.

We went to a little hotel in Myrtle Beach for our honeymoon and thought we were so grown up to check into that hotel as husband and wife. Ashley and John are going to an extremely nice resort in the Carribean.

Times sure have changed. I thought my wedding was wonderful. It was a day full of happy memories and lots of love from our family and friends. It was nothing like the wedding my daughter will have. But I'm hoping when she looks back on her special day, the main thing she will remember about it was the happiness and joy and love she felt as she and John started their new life together.

18 comments:

What a great post! All three of ours were married in 18 months...the last one was June 2008. It is so true about the differences in weddings now. Weddings in 1975 were mints and punch and nuts in the fellowship hall. NOW everything is big and everyone serves a meal. $$$$$$$ I loved our three kid's weddings though. They were fun, God filled and beautiful!!

Happy Anniversary. We were only married two years before our first was born. They were all born in under 4 years. When they all left the nest, we were in our 40s. Once we got adjusted, it was great. Life is one big honeymoon. Enjoy!

We had our first when we had been married about 19 months so I can relate to not having as much time together BK (before kids). We have a bit of time before our nest is empty, but we'll watch to see all of the fun things y'all get to do together again!!!

WHat a beautiful couple love the pics! Happy anniversary love the differences over the years! You guys are such examples of what a great marriage is! You always have fun all of you! You'll continue to just have more fun everyday!

I love this post! You were and are still so beautiful and I still can't believe that you and steve have four kids that are now all college age and older. You two are such an incredible example for so many of us and we appreciate you guys so much! love you!

Happy Anniversary! Wow...24 years, that is awesome!! This was such a great post...I loved reading the similarities and differences between your wedding and Ashley's wedding! I hope you had a GREAT day!

Congratulations beautiful! I am so excited for you and Steve (and a little sad too)! I am happy and excited for your many years of marriage and for the opportunities you will get as your life takes a turn... and a little sad because I know having an empty nest will be a very big adjustment! It is VERY evident that y'all are such a close family and I know that you might have an "empty nest" but I have a feeling that your family will only grow and you'll be seeing them around on the weekends A LOT! :-) I have come to admire you and your family so much and I am excited to see y'all grow in change in such positive and exciting ways! I hope you have a wonderful start to a wonderful school year! I'll be praying for you as your last two head off to school and as you prepare to welcome a son-in-law to the family! :-) Sending smiles and Happy thoughts your way!!! ;-) Have a week as wonderful as you are!!

This is SOOO sweet, Betsy. I know what you mean. Weddings are SO different than my 1994 church wedding, reception in the church gym that was transformed with lattices and tulle! I wouldn't change it though. I know Ashley's wedding will be gorgeous. I can hardly wait to see the pictures!